Rural Recycling - Barn Salvage & Reclamation

On a small farm in the middle of B.F.E., Winterset, you'll find (if you're lucky) one of the state's highest concentrations of old barns. Yeah, but these get the line *some assembly required*. Scott Henderson and his wife, Beth, travel around the state disassembling old barns that will either be sold as traditional whole structures, pieced out or built as new structures. Scott's Rural Recycling is about as cool as reusable resourcing can get. There's always something new in stock including the pieces below, some of which are going to become a desk for ReadyMade's deputy editor, Amy Palanjian.

Scott also does landscaping and stone masonry under the name Set In Stone. This is a recently completed structure on their property.


Pine, douglas fir, oak, walnut...


All of these mortise and tenon joints were cut by hand, folks. Hand drills, chisels and a mallet...yeah, think about that for a while. This practicum of carpentry may seem a bit antiquated, but it definitely had soul and personality. Both of which are becoming lost with each passing day...



This is just a small glimpse of all the old timbers at the Henderson compound. Does anybody realize when this stuff is gone, it's gonna be GONE forever. Not this lumber in particular, but all of the old barns. That's the cool thing about building with this stuff - giving new life to material that would have otherwise been burnt to ash. You can't rewrite the stories within these beams, but you can pen another chapter for future generations to enjoy...